As a cinematic technique, montage produces meaning by linking discrete images and sounds into signifying and affective sequences. Solidarity, as a political imperative, seeks to unite distinct social actors—classes, movements, and peoples—in shared struggle. Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov (1896–1954), through his concept of kino-eye, emphasized montage’s capacity to connect »any given points in the universe.« This principle materialized in works like A Sixth Part of the World (1926), a film infused with the Soviet Union’s anticolonial policies of the 1920s. By the 1930s, the solidarity film emerged as a distinct subgenre: militant documentaries chronicling antifascist, anticolonial, and anti-imperialist struggles across borders. From the Spanish Civil War to antifascist resistance in Asia and Europe during World War II, and later, liberation struggles in the Third World—Algeria, Palestine, Vietnam—, filmmakers traversed continents, capturing, assembling, and disseminating images to forge transnational solidarity. This lecture traces the evolution of solidarity cinema and its intricate relationship with montage, from the revolutionary internationalism of the Third International in the 1920s to the »long sixties,« when film became a weapon in struggles for national liberation.

---

THE LECTURE WILL BE HYBRID.

To participate via Zoom, you need to register for the meeting with your name and email address. To sign up, please click >>HERE<<. The Zoom link will then be emailed to you immediately.

To participate in person, no registration is currently required.